A Saudi man has been jailed for four years in the US, for selling counterfeit Cisco networking equipment to the US Marine Corps, Arab News reports.

Ehab Ali Ashoor was found guilty of supplying fake Cisco gigabit interface converters, (GBICs) through his company, CDS Federal Inc, to fulfill a contract with the US Marines. The GBICs had been intended for use at a Marine base near Fallujah in Iraq, but US customs offices identified them as inferior fakes.

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Ashoor, who is resident in the US, supplied 200 of the GBICs to the Marine Corps, charging $119,000 for them, but it was discovered that the items were actually counterfeits, sourced from an eBay vendor in Hong Kong for less that $25 per GBIC.

The case was part of an operation, codenamed Network Raider, to clamp down on the supply of counterfeit or poor quality computer supplies to US military and federal agencies, which has netted over $143 million worth of fake Cisco equipment in over 700 seizures, resulting in 30 convictions.

I agree with Akbar.The operation code name should be something like "US Network corps". It's unfair to just say Saudi. Common sense..once u are a citizen of US he become one...behaves one....
Editor's note: He's a Saudi citizen, not a US citizen.

Yaowza!!! I know I'm in the wrong rackett when a functioning counterfeit (inferior as it may be) passes for an original yet sells for a profit at less than 5% of the original ($25 vs. $525)... Cmon Cisco, has the price of sand gone up lately?!! how Shylock will you get!
Personally, I think the CISCO bandwagon, lock, stock & barrel, belong in jail along w. Bernie & company...